Posts Tagged ‘Quirke’

As per my post a few days ago, I’ve been checking out the new search function on Irish Family History Foundation. So far for all of the records I have viewed, I have come up trumps in my search for my Quirke Family from Kilkenny.

From a transcript of the life of Thomas Quirk, which was written in the late 1890’s, Thomas wrote that his paternal grandparents were James & Alice Reid and had married around 1796 in Tipperary and shortly after marriage, “They went to reside at Mount Nugent House near St John’s Well County Kilkenny. My grandfather acted as agent for the landlord named Millet who resided at St John’s town”.

The ability to search on full names for marriages is only available for some counties, including Kilkenny and South Tipperary. I found no marriage in South Tipperary for a James & Alice Reid (variant spellings, Read, Reade & Reed) but I did find the following marriage in Kilkenny in 1797 at St Johns Parish, which fits will in to where my Quirke’s lived.

Date of Marriage: 02-Jul-1797

Parish / District: ST. JOHN’S County: Co. Kilkenny

Husband: James Quirke

Wife: Ally Reed

Denomination: Roman Catholic

Parents Names: Not listed

Witness 1 John Reed Witness 2 Mary Quirk

James & Alice had a total of 12 children, 10 males and 2 females. Up until the last couple of days, I only knew the names of 4 of the males, Peter, John, Thomas & Nicholas, 3 of which came to NSW to live in the 1850’s & 1860’s. Now after finding the baptism records, I believe I now have a few more of the names of the children of James &Alice:

For the following, the father’s name is consistent; being James Quirk, but the mother’s first name or last name is spelt differently.

The only baptism record that almost matches to my direct ancestor, John Quirk is this one:

John Quirk – 26/01/1800 – Parish St John’s – Father listed as John Quirk, Mother listed as Ally Read. It’s likely that the father’s name was listed incorrectly as John, instead of James on the original parish record.

The next thing to do is to find the names of the other 3 males and the 2 female children. From the transcript of Thomas Quirke’s life he also wrote that ‘after my grandfather’s death my uncle John was appointed Agent for our Landlord and held the position until he was accidentally killed by being crushed between a gatepost and a vehicle. My paternal Uncles and Aunts were all well-educated. Some died young, and others emigrated to America. One was a Master Tailor in Liverpool England, and another a grocer’s assistant in Kilkenny. The other an officer in the army.

I’m not sure when James Quirk died, but John died sometime prior to 1853, as on the NSW shipping record, for his daughter Mary, who arrived on the ship Athenian, it’s listed that her father was deceased and mother was living in Johns Well Kilkenny and I’m thinking also that he died prior to 1847, as he is not listed on the Griffith’s valuations at Mount Nugent, though three of his brothers are. There is a John Quirk who was in the parish of St John, listed as a Tenant & Landlord at the place name of ‘McGrahth’s Lane’ in 1849 & 1850. I’m not sure if the John Quirk at McGrath’s lane is mine or not, as mine was the ‘agent for Millet up until his death.

I did it again. I decided today that I would record some of my ‘notes’ and other items that I have found recently into my Legacy Database. But once again, I got side tracked…..

Firstly, I was recording an event against my ancestor Dennis McCormack into the legacy database and I wanted the actual link to the Trove website to include. So because I didn’t have it, I did another search. That’s when I first got side-tracked. I found an article I had not seen before in relation to William McCormack, the eldest son of Dennis & Mary McCormack, which related to his death in 1878. He died of burns to his body and there was an investigation into how William was treated at Maitland Hospital prior to his death. Interesting reading: Maitland Mercury Article – William McCormack

Then I started back into inputting more information into my Legacy database and for the last couple of days, I’ve been working on my ‘Quirke’ Surname and once again, instead of concentrating on what it is that I should be doing, I somehow, ended up at http://www.connorsgenealogy.com/Kilkenny/ and found the following:

The John Quirke above, could be my ancestor, but there were a number of ‘Quirke’s living in the Kilkenny area during the same time.

So far, I have not gone back to the pile of things to input into the database, because then I whilst as some of you know, when you start to get sidetracked, other ideas get into your head and think, maybe I’ll try this search or that search and whilst I was searching, I ended up at Origin’s Network and I have in the past ignored any links to subscribe but today I decided to subscribe for 72 hours full access for £8.00. So far the £8.00 is worth it, as I have found a bit of information, some of which is below. Some I know are definitely my ancestors, some others maybe, but I I will keep for later reference.

1: There are 139 Quirke’s listed in the Griffiths’ Valuations for Kilkenny, of which some I already know are connected to mine (considering GV can be viewed for free on Griifth’s Valuation I’ll check on the full list another time)

2: A total of 18 Quirke’s are listed on the Tithe Defaulters, 1831 – of which the following 3 I know are my ancestors.

Quirk James farmer Mt Nugent

Quirk Peter farmer Mt Nugent

Quirk John farmer Mt Nugen

3: The following are listed Electoral Registers for Ireland 1832-38

James Dilworth – Tyrone Dungannon. (I have a Joseph Dilworth & a John Dilworth from Tyrone. Joseph came to NSW in 1842)

John Fitzgerald – Limerick – 1838 – Freemen admitted since 1831

John Fitzgerald, Limerick – 1837 – Voters & Excise Licences (the father of my Mary Fitzgerald who was born in Stonehall, Limerick was a ‘John Fitzgerald’).]

A total of 18 ‘Quirke’s are listed but none of them are in Kilkenny.

Just got to get back to that recording and filing of that information that I have found, but it’s so much more fun searching for stuff then actually inputting into the database, once I have found it.

The name comes from the Gaelic “O’Cuirc”, another form is “O’Coirce”. In Galway, the name also took the form “Oates,” to distinguish between branches of families. Quirke in Gaelic sounds like the word for Oates in Gaelic. It was common for parish registers to have a person’s records include both spellings of Quirke and Quirk, if an unrelated person such as a neighbour was sent to register the birth, the name was not always spelled correctly.

James and Alice Quirke were married around 1796 at Tipperary, Ireland and soon after moved to Mount Nugent, St Johns Well, Kilkenny Ireland. Their children were:

They also had another 6 males and 2 females, of which details of their names are unknown . A few years ago, a distant cousin that I was in contact with, sent me a copy of a document that was written by Thomas Quirke (b:1834-d:1908) In this document Thomas writes about his life and experiences but the most interesting thing was that he wrote about his parents and grandparents.

Who were the Quirke’s who came to Australia

Many of the Quirke Family came out to Australia between 1849 & 1865. Of which my GGG Grandmother, Mary Quirk was one, who had arrived on the ship Athenian in 1853.

A searchable index of the NSW Assistant Immigrants is available on the NSW State Records website. You can also scroll through the digital copies of the Bounty Immigrants lists, 1838-96, ship by ship. These digital copies are the Agents Lists and the reels numbers range between 2134 & 2137. More detailed shipping lists can be found on the reels that begin with 24 and these can be found at your local library or at the NSW State Records. These show more detail such as names of parents and comments such as ‘Uncle Peter Quirk, living in Sydney’.

1847 – 1864 Griffith’s Valuation

James Quirke acted as a landlord for a man named Millet at Mount Nugent. After James died his son John was appointed Agent for the landlord and held the position until he was accidentally killed by being crushed between a gate post and a vehicle.